Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Very sad to read that adult film star Arpad Miklos (ne Peter Kozma) had committed suicide. Met him at the New York City Gay Pride parade last summer and he was as sweet and handsome as can be. (I cited him as one of porn's all-time hottest last month and just rubbed one out to him last night.) Wish I could say I was surprised by this turn of events, however. Arpad also worked as an escort and as glamorous as gay culture makes this world out to be, whenever I'm around people who do this I can't help but think to myself: How do they live with themselves? Sadly, Arpad -- like so manybefore him -- could not. My condolences to his friends and family. He will be missed.

Arpad was 45. That starts to be a little long in the tooth for appearing in porn. And escorting? Now, that's work.

I saw his ad once on Rentboy and was surprised by how small a premium he commanded as a very well-known actor: $350 a session, which is maybe only twice what an unknown escort charges.

Plus, he lived in NYC -- one of the most expensive places on the planet. Let's say he needed to earn $80,000 a year, which wouldn't go far in the city. That would require about 230 dates a year at $350 each -- or more than four a week, every week, year round. That takes a lot of hustling, unless you've got a steady clientele.

Options are limited post-acting if you're going to continue working in the porn industry. You can try directing and producing. But there's far more competition today than there was when he entered the business nearly 20 years ago. Anyone with a reasonably good digital camera and a friend with web design skills can launch a company.

Perhaps he'd been working outside the industry, trying to ease himself into a more traditional career. His many obituaries say he was a chemist in Hungary before he came to the U.S.